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Declaration of Medical Professionals About Hazards of Amendment 79

Statement from AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PRO-LIFE OBSTETRICIANS AND GYNECOLOGISTS (AAPLOG)

Declaration of medical professionals about hazards of 79

We, the undersigned healthcare professionals, wish to warn Coloradoans about the hazards of Amendment 79.

Amendment 79 would become the only medical intervention that is protected in the Colorado Constitution Bill of Rights.  It would ensure unrestricted, unregulated, taxpayer-funded access to abortion.

If adopted, Amendment 79 eliminates parental notification prior to a minor daughter’s abortion which is currently law in Colorado.  This undermines the critical relationship between a teen, her parents, and their healthcare professional.  It may leave a teen feeling isolated and alone as she makes one of the most important decisions of her young life and faces potential physical and emotional complications of an abortion by herself.  A girl who is pregnant after sexual abuse or violence would be able to be coerced or forced to have an abortion, with no knowledge of the parent, protecting the perpetrators and harming the girls.

Amendment 79 would prevent Coloradoans and their elected representatives in the legislature from enacting any restrictions on abortion late in pregnancy after the fetus could survive independently from her mother if born prematurely.  Some of us care for babies born at the same gestational age as these aborted fetuses and can attest to their humanity – their ability to feel pain and respond to their mother’s caress, voice, and scent.  We know that approximately 500 fetuses are aborted each year in Colorado after the limit of viability.  Most of these abortions are performed on healthy women carrying healthy babies.  This is a tragedy that will only get worse if we pass Amendment 79.

We lament the fact that hundreds of healthy women in Colorado currently undergo abortions each year on healthy fetuses late in pregnancy because they feel they have no other options.  As healthcare professionals, we believe there are more compassionate ways to address the financial and social needs of these women.

We are saddened by the abortion techniques that are deployed late in pregnancy that frequently involve the systematic dismemberment of a pain-capable fetus or the fetal poisoning that can result in hours of anguishing discomfort before death.  Amendment 79 would strip the fetus of all legal value and protections and prevent professional medical organizations or state government from regulating abortion methods and prohibiting especially cruel abortion procedures.

We are appalled that second and third-trimester abortion clinics are not licensed, regulated or inspected in Colorado despite the high-risk late abortion procedures that they perform.  We know that Colorado already provides oversight of thousands of healthcare facilities including birth centers, community clinics, rural health clinics, rehab centers, ambulatory surgical centers, free-standing emergency departments, dialysis centers, acute care facilities, nursing homes, assisted living centers, mental health centers, portable X-ray services, and physical/occupational/speech therapy services.  If Amendment 79 passes, the state will be unable to establish or enforce prudent health and safety standards pertaining to second and third-trimester abortion clinics.  Our patients’ health and lives will continue to be jeopardized.

By creating a new constitutional right to abortion, the conscience rights of physicians, nurse practitioners, and nurses will be compromised. If Amendment 79 passes, they may be threatened with termination of their employment if they don’t refer women for abortions or participate in abortions – even if it is contrary to their core beliefs and values.

As healthcare professionals who care deeply for our patients, we feel it is our moral obligation to tell the truth about Amendment 79 and its impact on our community.